Hillary Clinton Calls DOJ Investigation Threats An 'Abuse Of Power'

Hillary Clinton responded to news that Attorney General Jeff Sessions is considering appointing a special counsel to investigate Republican allegations leveled against her and other Democrats.

In a letter sent to Congressional Republicans on Monday, top Justice Department official Stephen Boyd wrote that Sessions had “directed senior federal prosecutors to evaluate certain issues” raised by Republicans, including a deal made when Clinton served as secretary of state involving the Canadian mining company Uranium One to a Russian firm.

Because the company had U.S. holdings, Clinton’s State Department was involved in the approval process. Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have for years claimed that Clinton approved the deal in a quid-pro-quo exchange for donations to the Clinton Foundation. But there’s no evidence that Clinton acted inappropriately. The State Department was just one of nine agencies on the committee signing off on the deal and, ultimately, only then-President Barack Obama had veto power.

Clinton on Wednesday called the accusations “personally offensive,” telling Mother Jones “this is such an abuse of power and it goes right at the rule of law.”

“If [the Trump administration] sends a signal that we’re going to be like some dictatorship ― some authoritarian regime ― where political opponents are going to be unfairly, fraudulently investigated, that rips at the fabric of the contract we have, that we can trust our justice system,” she continued.

The former secretary of state said appointing a special counsel to investigate her would be “such a disastrous step into politicizing the justice system.”

Trump and his surrogates have renewed calls for the Justice Department to investigate Clinton and Democrats since Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation into Russia’s meddling of the 2016 presidential election resulted in the arrest of three former Trump campaign staffers last month.

Sessions’ decision to weigh whether a special counsel should be appointed to investigate Clinton has been criticized as move meant to appease the president at a time when the attorney general faces new questions about his own involvement with the Trump campaign’s contacts in Russians.

Watch Clinton’s full response in the video above.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.